New gadget: remote WiFi Temperature & Humidity Data Logger

Measurment of temperature is getting so much easier these days. Some of you may have a need for this WiFi Temperature / Humidity Data Logging Sensor, so I thought I’d list it here. It allows you to log temperature and humidity anywhere, and report the data over your WiFi connection. You can run multiples of these on your 802.11b WiFi Connection and log the data wirelessly into your PC. You can also setup from data streaming to watch the data live. It works with any consumer or industrial grade wireless router. Pretty cool.

The EL-WiFi-TH sensor measures the temperature and humidity of the environment in which it is situated. Data is transmitted wirelessly via a WiFi network to a PC and viewed using a free Windows based software package. During configuration the sensor will search for an existing wireless network while physically connected to the PC. It can then be placed anywhere within range of the network. If the sensor temporarily loses connectivity with the network, it will log readings until it is able to communicate again with the PC application (max 60 days at 10 second sample interval). The range of the sensor can be increased by using off the shelf WiFi extenders.

This EL-WiFi-TH is a low powered battery device. When configured using typical sampling periods (e.g. once every 60 seconds) the sensor will operate for over one year. The battery can then be recharged via a PC or USB +5V wall adapter using the USB lead provided.

The software installed on the PC will allow set-up, data logging and data review. Set-up features will include sensor name, °C/°F, sample rate, and high/low alarms. Once configured, logged data can be viewed via the graphing tool or exported into Excel.

This sensor stands alone by itself on a horizontal surface and comes with a wall bracket that can be screwed onto a wall or flat surface. The sensor clips into the bracket.

Applications

Temperature and humidity data acquisition and monitoring has applications in a range of industries including: meteorology, building monitoring, server room monitoring, energy usage, pharmaceutical, HVAC, agriculture, horticulture and environmental studies. Sensors can be used across the food industry from manufacturing and storage to distribution and retail. Other sensitive products that require temperature monitored environments include medical vaccines, historical artifacts and wine. The unit is small enough to ship with packaging of perishables.

FEATURES

Temperature and humidity data logging sensor

WiFi capability and integrated display

Wireless connectivity to PC via WiFi

Easy sensor set-up using free PC software

View and analyse multiple sensors using the PC application, including immediate graphing of historic data

Measurement range from -20 to +60°C (-4 to +140°F)

802.11b compliant

Capable of logging greater than 500,000 data set entries

Battery life typically a year or more between charges

Sensor memory stores all data even if WiFi is temporarily disconnected

IP55 compliant weather resistant enclosure

Rechargeable internal lithium polymer battery

Configurable high and low alarms with indicator

Max & Min readings

Low battery indicator

WiFi connection indicator

USB port used for recharging

Supplied with wall bracket and micro USB lead

The battery is safely charged when the unit is operating between 0 to +40°C (+32 to +104°F). It is protected against charging outside this temperature range. Sensor readings may be inaccurate during battery charging.

ah, boosted the odds!
11 July: ABC Australia: AFP: Climate change boosts odds of extreme weather: report
Read the 282-page State of the Climate report here (15.61MB PDF)
While it remains hard to link single events to human-caused climate change, “scientific thinking has moved on and now it is widely accepted that attribution statements about individual weather or climate events are possible,” the report added.
The key is analysing to what extent climate change may be boosting the odds of extreme weather, said the report, likening the phenomenon to a baseball player who takes steroids and then starts getting 20 per cent more hits than before.
Scientists can consider steroids as the likely cause for the increase in hits, but must still take care to account for natural variability in the player’s swing.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-11/climate-change-boosts-odds-of-extreme-weather/4122988

Nice device, however not usable outdoors in Canada. We typically reach -35C or lower at some point every winter, and can go months at a time below the safe charging temperature.
Also, isn’t the 1C margin of error greater than the alleged “global warming” from the last century? Oh, I know, if you average the error over 1000 devices you get accuracy of 1/1000th degree C…
Also… um… that price is a bit steep…

Constructive suggestions on said product~
If remote in location, no need for a large LCD display. Make that area solar and increase the battery life to 3-5 years.
Just a comment from another entrepreneur.REPLY: Model B will have that -A

Model B perhaps could consider NFC or BT 4.0 connectivity for data transfer in disconnected ~ locations. Could bolt on to those weather stations that can’t connect by cell to boot….. off the shelf integration if you will with some terminal resident memory.
Good stuff none the less.
I would be willing to Beta a B 🙂

This article appears to be more of an advertisement than anything else. Did you get a free one for posting this? And I’ll second the steep price comment.REPLY: No I didn’t get a free one, and the notice is for my own store, just like the ad on the sidebar. – Anthony

Anthony, I’m not sure how to get the word out, but one very important application for this kind of tool is any place that houses animals for experimental research. Newer building have temp and humidity monitoring built in to the HVAC, but older buildings do not. Constant monitoring of temp and humidity is required by the accreditation agencies, and a wi-fi remote unit would save hundreds of person-hours per year collecting the data. Plus, research universities and foundations would have the acquisition budget and wi-fi networks needed to make them work. I would definitely be in the market for 4-8 of these for my own lab if not for the fact that my animals were recently relocated to an updated facility at my university.
(And a related application — zoos where it is important to monitor the conditions in animal enclosures.)
I’m not sure how to get the word out, there are a number of specialty journals but I don’t know if they take advertising or what their rates are.

CodeTech says: July 10, 2012 at 7:59 pm
Also, isn’t the 1C margin of error greater than the alleged “global warming” from the last century? Oh, I know, if you average the error over 1000 devices you get accuracy of 1/1000th degree C…
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LOL, hope you inadvertently forgot the /sarc for the last statement. Somehow all the pseudo-scientists seem to think the central limit theorem applies to instrument error…. it does NOT.
If I had a spare $ 6,600 I could get a reasonable estimate of my backyard temperature for most of the year, even if the precision wasn’t all that great. Of course, I would need to upgrade my router as well…. hmmmm.

I for one have NO problem with promoting your OWN products on your OWN website. This is small payment for the potential risk and tireless effort you have invested in sharing Truth. This is a valuable device for the citizen-scientist involved in environmental research and is a welcome introduction to this readership, as are your weather station and eclipse photos. Place this add in the sidebar for easy reference should the future need arise.

If it could accept a number of remote probes (for example the 1-wire DS18B20), and a few digital i/o, it might be interesting. The user could be simpler too (web page configuration like all routers have now) and able to FTP upload to a server (local or remote). WiFi connection is good though. I’m doing some prototyping of a monitoring/management unit for my heating system, and probably want about 6 temperatures, electric meter monitoring, and a couple of pump run sensors at least. I based this around a 20€ LPC-xpresso dev board which only has USB or wired ethernet (but it has the horsepower to do everything I need, I hope)

I assume the statement “Sensor readings may be inaccurate during battery charging.” actually refers to ‘Reported readings……” in that (I hope) the sensor is always doing what it does, and it is really the internal battery heating up a bit during charging that disturbs the sensor reading from the true local ambient. Unless, of the course, the power supply/charging circuit is not well designed, so that the sensor is disturbed by the charging voltage……..and that would not be a good thing.
Also +1 for ‘too expensive’.

An excellent device for greenhouses, which are normally equipped with the standard measuring devices, where temperature and humidity monitoring are important, gardening enthusiasts (there are millions of them) would be more than keen to get hold of your device. Small ads in one of many gardening publications would be a good investment.

For people commenting on range, I think this is proabably designed (or at least recommended) for internal temp/humidity monitoring as opposed to weather monitoring. And the cost issue is really a question of user: As a hobbyist/nerd who wants to keep a record of the temeperature inside my apartment, there are much cheaper options (one of Anthony’s USB temp loggers would be great for that), but for greenhouses, storage facilities, animal housing (good call Thomas), this is actually a pretty good deal.

If there’s going to be a rev. B, it would be good to have the WiFi upgraded to 802.11g with WPA2. You don’t need the speed, but the WEP encryption in 802.11b can be broken in minutes, which may open a hole into your network.

Cris: Both 802.11b or g can use WEP or WPA. b/g refers to the transmission speed, 11 or 54 Mbps. WPA is better (WPA2 perhaps more) but still better is restricting MAC addresses in the router. Only specific devices are allowed in, password or not. My concern with this device is also temp range. Doesn’t go down far enough. I have a USB logger, but I still have to go out and get it once in a while. Perhaps the B version will improve this.

Dunno who makes this device, but in my view, an accuracy of 1 deg C simply doesn’t cut it. Simiconductor bandgap based devices are much better than that in Temperature resolution, and a single point calibration takes care of the accuracy over that very limited Temperature range. I also wonder what the Temperature effect on Relative humidity is over that Temperature range. 3% seems to be about what you can get by licking your finger. So what is the RH sensor that is used in this machine.
I’d like to be able to accurately read RH down to say -40 degrees. Seems like RH sensing is an almost forgotten side track in measurement techniques (rapid, and easy).

I know most of the lab orientated instruments are going to be used with Windows based PC’s but in the more consumer orientated market Mac compatible software would be a big plus, as Mac has a much larger segment of the market among people who like to spend a lot money on consumer items.

vukcevic says:
July 11, 2012 at 1:09 am
An excellent device for greenhouses, which are normally equipped with the standard measuring devices, where temperature and humidity monitoring are important, gardening enthusiasts (there are millions of them) would be more than keen to get hold of your device. Small ads in one of many gardening publications would be a good investment.
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Now we’re thinking, at least in my view.

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